Before dawn on a Thursday in early March, a Falcon 9 rose from the historic pad at Kennedy Space Center, carrying sixty more satellites toward low-Earth orbit. After weeks of postponements, the flight went cleanly, adding another stitch to Starlink, the network SpaceX hopes will bring fast internet to people almost anywhere on the planet. Its booster returned to the Atlantic and settled onto a waiting ship, a quiet mark of recovery after a February loss at sea. Whether these new craft unfold their solar wings and take their places in orbit will show, in the coming days and weeks, how far the c
SpaceX Launches 60 More Starlink Satellites on 20th Mission After Repeated Delays
Before dawn on a Thursday in early March, a Falcon 9 rose from the historic pad at Kennedy Space Center, carrying sixty more satellites toward low-Earth orbit. After weeks of postponements, the flight went cleanly, adding another stitch to Starlink, the network SpaceX hopes will bring fast internet to people almost anywhere on the planet. Its booster returned to the Atlantic and settled onto a waiting ship, a quiet mark of recovery after a February loss at sea. Whether these new craft unfold their solar wings and take their places in orbit will show, in the coming days and weeks, how far the constellation has grown.
At 3:24 on a Thursday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It carried 60 more Starlink satellites, bound for low-Earth orbit. The launch had been delayed many times since late January, and the most recent scrub came on Sunday, with less than a minute and a half left on the countdown. This time, the flight went cleanly.
The mission was the 20th for Starlink, the network SpaceX is building to deliver low-latency internet worldwide. It was the sixth Starlink launch of 2021, and with this batch more than 1,000 Starlink satellites have now been sent into low-Earth orbit. The second stage carried the satellites to their release point and set them free.
The first-stage booster returned and landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic. Youmei Zhou, a SpaceX propulsion engineer, said it was the company's 75th successful retrieval of an orbital-class rocket and the eighth for this booster, which can fly 10 or more times with minimal refurbishment. The landing mattered because a booster from earlier in February had failed to make it to the ship and seemed to crash into the sea. Thursday's recovery put the company back on track.
Now the attention shifts to the satellites. Over the coming days and weeks they are expected to unfold their solar arrays and move into position, and that progress will show how the network grows, one batch at a time.
At 3:24 on Thursday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It carried 60 more Starlink communications satellites, bound for low-Earth orbit. The launch came after a string of postponements, and it went cleanly.
The mission was the 20th for Starlink, the satellite network SpaceX is building to offer low-latency Internet worldwide. It was also the sixth Starlink launch of 2021, according to Andy Tran, a production supervisor with SpaceX. With this batch, more than 1,000 Starlink satellites have now been sent into low-Earth orbit.
The flight itself followed the usual pattern. The second stage carried on with the mission and released its batch of satellites into orbit. The first-stage booster came back down and landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next days and weeks, the new satellites are expected to unfold their solar arrays and maneuver into their operational positions.
Youmei Zhou, a SpaceX propulsion engineer, put numbers on the landing. It was the company's 75th successful retrieval of an orbital-class rocket, and the eighth for this particular booster. She said boosters can be reused 10 or more times with minimal refurbishment.
The recovery matters partly because of what happened last time. The first-stage booster from a launch earlier in February failed to land on the drone ship and appeared to crash into the Atlantic. Thursday's landing put the company back on track after that loss.
The launch also ended a long wait. It was first scheduled for late January and was pushed back several times. The most recent delay came on Sunday, when the mission was called off with less than a minute and a half left on the countdown.
What to watch now is the satellites' own progress. Whether the 60 new craft deploy their arrays and settle into position as planned will show how the network's expansion is going, one batch at a time.
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